Current consumption levels unsustainable – UN diplomat

The Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) of the United Nations, Sha Zukang

It has been 20 years since the UN convened its Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Now the countries of the world are preparing to get together yet again in 2012 to talk about how they can “green” the world economy and eradicate poverty.

­United Nations Secretary General for the Conference on Sustainable Development Sha Zukang told RT what role developed and developing countries have to play in sustainability and eradicating poverty and whether global capitalism is sustainable and compatible with greening the world economy.

“In the last 20 [years] progress has been made in the sphere of sustained development. We are making progress in the education well, but it is rather small. The objective therefore of Rio+20 is to renew our commitment and come up with a set of measures to implement what we already committed,” stated Sha Zukang.

He also pointed out poverty issues are to be tackled at the Rio+20.

“The percentage of people living in poverty has been reduced, but unfortunately the absolute number of those living beneath poverty line has increased, particularly in Africa and South Asia, and now make [up] nearly 1.5 billion people. And this is a shame for international community”.Zukang also pointed out current levels of production and consumption cannot be sustained.

“The consequences of that are very serious. We can see the resources are depleting very fast. Thus developed countries should take the lead; they have finance, technology, capacity,” Zukang concluded.